"In late April, racism fueled the burning of the city of Baltimore, compelling U.S. President Barack Obama to call it a “slow-rolling crisis.” But many around the world understand it to be more than that.

What does it mean for the rest of the world when its most powerful nation struggles mightily with racism in its midst? For one, it contextualizes the often-heralded notion of American “exceptionalism.” At its core, that idea is an incredibly arrogant notion. It hints of racism and a barely concealed contempt of others, especially the non-Western world. But it is a doctrine that is still ruthlessly enforced in the carnival that is American politics.

The rest of the world sees this. It smells the hypocrisy in Washington when leaders resort to the old saw that America “is a nation of immigrants” while kicking unaccompanied children out of the country en masse.

While Wall Street stocks won’t take a hit from the riots in Baltimore, the image of the United States as a free, fair, and prosperous land for all certainly does. Some 150 years after the end of the U.S. Civil War, the United States has not overcome its reprehensible domestic legacy of racism. And it is time that politicians, academics, and business leaders across the world pause before they readily embrace American ideals and interests.

The average American should know, too, that what’s happening in Baltimore or Ferguson reverberates thousands of miles away."

"Hiding done properly is the internal faithful promise for a proper future emergence, as embryos, as children or even as emerging adults in retreat from the names that have caught us and imprisoned us, often in ways where we have been too easily seen and too easily named......

Hiding is creative, necessary and beautifully subversive of outside interference and control. Hiding leaves life to itself, to become more of itself. Hiding is the radical independence necessary for our emergence into the light of a proper human future."

"For Nepal, one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in Asia, this catastrophe has laid bare its political dysfunction. Many of those left homeless or injured have been waiting in vain for any form of government assistance. There were no pictures of political leaders visiting stricken citizens, no words of empathy or consolation. Nepalis had to content themselves instead with TV appearances of officials like Communication Minister Minendra Rijal, who merely acknowledged “some weaknesses in managing the relief operation.”

While some foreign countries have already started supplying humanitarian assistance (albeit on a fairly limited scale), the corrupt government machinery is already reportedly seizing much of what they have brought.

While the country’s diversity has many positive aspects, it has also become a major obstacle to political development. The continuing absence of a constitution has stymied further moves toward democracy. Nepal had its last popularly elected local governments two decades ago.

The dismal response to the earthquake, including reports about the misappropriation of relief supplies, means that Kathmandu can no longer pretend the problem doesn’t exist."

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